Album review: Bettye LaVette, 'Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook'
Rating: 2 stars (out of 4)
Bettye LaVette began recording while a teenager in 1960, but never quite got her due on the soul circuit, in part because her one-of-a-kind voice sounded like a black-and-blue bruise instead of a more traditional, gospel-drenched alto.
She hustled in obscurity for decades before finally winning some overdue recognition with her 2005 Joe Henry-produced album “I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise.” The 2007 follow-up, “The Scene of the Crime,” was even better; it returned her to Muscle Shoals, Ala., where she recorded a lost soul classic in the ‘70s. “Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook” (Anti) sets LaVette loose on a collection of songs that should be familiar to any classic-rock aficionado.
The project was kick-started by her remake of The Who’s “Love Reign O’er Me” at the nationally televised Kennedy Center Honors program earlier this year (the performance is included on the CD). She left behind the original’s heroic bombast and instead put the focus on the devastating sense of desperation and loneliness at its core, a performance that brought tears of appreciation from the song’s author, Pete Townshend.
On the new album, she attempts similar transformations of warhorses such as Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here,” Elton John’s “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” and the Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin” with mixed results. LaVette turns the familiar melodies and tempos into putty; she favors a wrenching, slow-burn pacing that allows her to linger over or repeat words and stretch syllables. She’s determined to make these songs her own, sometimes by veering as far as possible from the originals, even embellishing the lyrics occasionally. The results can be ear-opening, as when she finds the bluesy heartache inside the Ringo Starr hit “It Don’t Come Easy.” But the stolid tempos and tortured phrasing become wearying after extended exposure.
The album definitely could’ve used a little more friskiness; as it is, a horn-spackled version of Derek and the Dominoes’ “Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad” and a brisk run-through of the Beatles “The Word” are the only moments where LaVette busts loose from her always heart-felt, but sometimes overly earnest, introspection.
Sponsored Link: Amazon's Bettye LaVette Store
Bettye LaVette began recording while a teenager in 1960, but never quite got her due on the soul circuit, in part because her one-of-a-kind voice sounded like a black-and-blue bruise instead of a more traditional, gospel-drenched alto.
She hustled in obscurity for decades before finally winning some overdue recognition with her 2005 Joe Henry-produced album “I’ve Got My Own Hell to Raise.” The 2007 follow-up, “The Scene of the Crime,” was even better; it returned her to Muscle Shoals, Ala., where she recorded a lost soul classic in the ‘70s. “Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook” (Anti) sets LaVette loose on a collection of songs that should be familiar to any classic-rock aficionado.
The project was kick-started by her remake of The Who’s “Love Reign O’er Me” at the nationally televised Kennedy Center Honors program earlier this year (the performance is included on the CD). She left behind the original’s heroic bombast and instead put the focus on the devastating sense of desperation and loneliness at its core, a performance that brought tears of appreciation from the song’s author, Pete Townshend.
On the new album, she attempts similar transformations of warhorses such as Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here,” Elton John’s “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” and the Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin” with mixed results. LaVette turns the familiar melodies and tempos into putty; she favors a wrenching, slow-burn pacing that allows her to linger over or repeat words and stretch syllables. She’s determined to make these songs her own, sometimes by veering as far as possible from the originals, even embellishing the lyrics occasionally. The results can be ear-opening, as when she finds the bluesy heartache inside the Ringo Starr hit “It Don’t Come Easy.” But the stolid tempos and tortured phrasing become wearying after extended exposure.
The album definitely could’ve used a little more friskiness; as it is, a horn-spackled version of Derek and the Dominoes’ “Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad” and a brisk run-through of the Beatles “The Word” are the only moments where LaVette busts loose from her always heart-felt, but sometimes overly earnest, introspection.
greg@gregkot.com